Ellen Rice Gallery to hold Holiday Open House Dec. 21-22

Event features Disney travel planner talks and debut of new mini-prints

Dec 18, 2013

Source: SubmittedDuane Whitman, shown at Chef Mickey's in Walt Disney World, will present "Navigating Spring Break at Disney" from 11 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m., Dec. 21 and 22 at the Ellen Rice Gallery in Ocean View.

Disney-certified, Glass Slipper Concierge travel planner Duane Whitman will present "Navigating Spring Break at Disney," and artist Ellen Rice will debut six 6-by-8-inch mini prints of the coastal area from 11 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 21 and 22.

The public is invited to enjoy the festivities, holiday music and refreshments.

Whitman, who frequently gives talks about the best ways to travel Disney, has been an avid Disney fan all his life, visited Walt Disney World more than 30 times, sailed on the Disney Cruise Line numerous times and has been planning custom itineraries for families visiting Walt Disney World since 1972.

A graduate of the College of Disney Knowledge, he joined Glass Slipper Concierge, a Disney-specialized, authorized travel concierge service that offers meticulously planned Disney vacations, in 2012. He specializes in selecting and reserving the best resorts, park tickets and dining plans to meet specific needs and desires, and beyond those basics offers free, customized concierge itinerary planning complete with free one-on-one, on-call help during vacations if desired and fee-based, onsite guided tours.

Rice will release gift-sized, easily frameable, mini-giclée prints of 6-by-8-inch oils and be on hand to personalize them for gift recipients. The prints feature bay scenes, ocean scenes, moonlit pathways, sunrises and sunsets along the shore and marshes of coastal Delaware. She will also be showing the first paintings in her ongoing Children by the Sea series of paintings that will soon be offered as greeting cards.

Rice, voted one of Delaware's most collectible shore artists several years ago, has lived on the shore since 1962, the last 19 years on the edge of the James Farm in Ocean View. She has been painting professionally since the 1970s and opened the Ellen Rice Gallery in 1999. To date, she has more than 100 paintings of the region she calls home in print.

Whitman, a lifelong resident of the Millsboro area, has managed the Ellen Rice Gallery for 15 years. He offers free Disney travel consultations and planning and can be reached seven days a week by calling 302-448-1534 and by appointment at the gallery year round.

The Ellen Rice Gallery is at 103 Atlantic Ave., Ocean View, in the west end of the old Country Wicker Building, 2.2 miles west of the Bethany Beach totem pole on Route 26.

"By the Light of a Golden Moon" is one of the six mini-prints Ellen Rice will release this weekend as part of the Ellen Rice Gallery's Holiday Open House. Rice will also be showing some of her recent Children by the Sea series paintings and discussing child portrait commissions with those interested in having the special children in their lives painted for this series.